8 Session Sample Curriculum
^Use the tabs above to view each session^
Instructions
This is a suggested 5-session curriculum that educators can use over a 5-day or 5-period course, with 50-minute sessions. Before using the curriculum, we suggest that educators become familiar with the material including reviewing the teacher-focused crash courses.
Educators should go through each unit and download the PowerPoint for class presentation. Educators should also download the accompanying activities for in-class activities. Speakers' notes are embedded in the PowerPoint. Activities are meant to be printed for students before class begins. We refer to any 50 minute period as a "Session." Sessions can be done once weekly, on consecutive days, or multiple sessions per day, depending on individual need.
Session 1: Addiction
Learning Objectives: To learn how the brain functions, including the structures and pathways in the brain; to understand the unique features of the adolescent brain and its vulnerability to addiction; to understand the ways the brain reacts to drugs.
Recommended Educator Crash Course Before Session 1:
Follow Up Assignment:
Session 2: Addiction
Learning Objectives: To develop a definition of addiction, discus addiction physiology and the brain’s response to drugs, address addiction myths; provide information about effects of addiction.
Recommended Educator Crash Course Before Session 2:
Follow Up Assignment:
Session 3: Addiction
Learning Objectives: To understand nicotine and its addictive properties; to learn how tobacco companies design tobacco properties to be addictive.
Recommended Educator Crash Course Before Session 3:
Follow Up Assignment:
Session 4: Tobacco Products
Learning Objectives: To learn about the history of tobacco in the United States; identify the targeted marketing practices used by tobacco companies; understand the differences in tobacco products, including their respective risks.
Session 5: E-Cigarettes and Vape Pens
Learning Objectives: To obtain accurate knowledge about how e-cigarettes/vape pens are made to work; understand the mechanisms by which the products of e-cigarettes/vape pens enter (or are absorbed) into the body.
Recommended Educator Crash Course Before Session 5:
In-class Activities:
Follow Up Assignment:
Session 6: E-Cigarettes and Vape Pens
Learning Objectives: To identify predatory marketing strategies employed by tobacco and e-cigarettes/vape pen industry; understand specific marketing strategies that e-cigarettes/vape pen manufacturers and the tobacco industry use to increase use among adolescents.
Follow Up Assignment:
Session 7: E-Cigarettes and Vape Pens
Learning Objectives: To explore and understand the appeal of pod-based e-cigarettes among adolescents in order to counter the appeal.
Follow Up Assignment:
Session 8: Other Tobacco Products
Learning Objectives: To understand information about smokeless tobacco and hookah.
Follow Up Assignment:
Ask students to write 5 statements that are true and 5 statements that are false about smokeless tobacco and hookah.